The Sound Of An Ambulance In The Distance

Wil Wheaton and I got excited and made a thing! Check out our University of Gallifrey Fighting Time Lords Shirt over at Sharksplode.

Gallifrey University Fighting Time Lords Shirt - Doctor Who parody, geeky tees, funny t-shirts, nerdy shirts

I am closing out some current t-shirt and print designs. Please check out this blog post since the stuff on closeout probably won’t be available again.

Everything Josh touches at E3 turns to shit. Even though I am not a gamer myself, I do have quite a few friends exhibiting at, attending or simply possessing a vested interest in this years Electronic Entertainment Expo. Josh IRL’s company, Gearbox Software, is showing off Duke Nukem: Forfuckingfinally, Aliens: Colonial Marines [they mostly come out at night… mostly] on the above-mentioned Wii U, plus the latest Brothers In Arms release, Brothers In Arms: Fast Five: Faster Five: The Fastest Furious Four: Bros In Arms Before Ho’s In Arms. I played Private Garnett in the first three Brothers In Arms games and I got my face shot right off [SPOILERS].

Eli IRL’s company, Terminal Reality, is unveiling their long awaited “Star Wars Kid” simulator, Kinect Star Wars. It’s got all the Jedi powers you’ve always wanted to act out: Force Flail, Light Saber Trip Over, Jump Fall, and Hurt Floor.

Nintendo has continued their tradition of creating poorly named, obscenely awkward hardware which has amazing capabilities that no one asked for, and that everyone will eventually love for 6 months before it turns out to be more popular with your mom’s friends than with your own.

COMMENTERS: What do you think of the Wii U? Will you Wii U? Anything else that you’ve seen from E3 that has sparked any sort of reaction? What about that Playstation Pita Pocket I keep hearing about?

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36 Comments

  1. With regards to the Wii U (mostly because I've seen virtually nothing else of E3 coverage) I'm just glad that Nintendo are continuing to innovate, rather than succumbing to the "better processor, better graphics, more memory" that consumers have had to put up with in recent, pre-Wii years.

  2. I played Private Garnett in the first three Brothers In Arms games and I got my face shot right off [SPOILERS].

    You know, the usual way to write that would be

    [SPOILERS]I played Private Garnett in the first three Brothers In Arms games and I got my face shot right off.[/SPOILERS]

    You BASTARD.

  3. I think it's too early to say much of anything about Wii U other than the fact that the name is stupid. The last system's name was stupid, but building off of stupid is just…stupid.

    The system sounds innovative, but it's never the tech that actually matters. At least not to me. If that were the case, I would have been sold on the PS3 and 360 last time around. It's all about creating games that satisfy, and Nintendo won me over last time because they didn't go the banal route with series upon series of first-person shooters. They gave me games that I could enjoy with various groups of people, gamer and non-gamer alike. If the Wii U gives me more of that, along with deeper single-player experiences, then I'm on board. If companies like Konami and Capcom make some truly intriguing games for the platform, I'm even more on board.

  4. Mixed reaction here. Controller is actually the downpoint for me. I'm expecting carpal tunnel syndrome from this thing. Everything elses is welcome tho.

    Sidepoint: I don't have any kids but I do wonder how well kids (like between 5 and 8) can handle the controller as well.

  5. I think Nintendo just likes to lead the market. They don't mind having the strange sounding, cartoony graphic-having, console, because they know that they generally lead (what I really don't want to call) the paradigm shift. Without Wii, there would have been no Kinect. There wasn't even a market for it before the Wii. The only close relative was the Eyetoy, which was pretty good, but – where are they now? Sony dumped them for whatever their version of the Wiimote /sigh/ is. And Wii is pretty good for group/family/party games whereas the other consoles seem to have traditionally tended to aim at the FPS market. I haven't seen the Wii U yet, but portable consoles aren't really my thing.

  6. I can't think ot the Wii U without thinking of Ling from Kung Pow. Aside from that I watched the trailer and it's like they forgot they were making a system that would play games. They shoved Zelda in at the end as an afterthought. Hell, I'd almost stopped the video because I don't care about putting pictures of my parrot on TV for disinterested friends and didn't even see that a new Zelda game was coming out. It's not even a gaming system anymore, it's like an iPad for your TV.

  7. The Wii U is going to have to prove its worth to me like the Wii did. Though frankly, I won’t own a Wii had my Gamecube not bricked. Also, not Impressed with the PSP Resumé.

  8. The controller is really reminiscent of the Dreamcast's controller, only much more advanced. Along with Josh up there, all I can hear is Ling's voice from Kung Pow, too. "Weeeoooeeeeooeeeooeee…quaaa!!" Making the controller this much more complex is going to lose a lot of their non-gamer market.

  9. oh, that's unfair! if there's SOMETHING Nintendo's hardware doesn't do is to break (unlike that Apple shit, an iPhone can´t even take a dive in the toilet without dying, my wii fell 5 feet and it's still well and working)

  10. There are definitely some things the Wii U does that I don't care about; i.e. setting the controller on the ground so that I can see the virtual golf ball I'm swinging at. However, that gun attachment has me really excited. I'm just imagining having the gun down at my side while I'm exploring, then, once a baddie pops up, swinging it up and using it as a sight to take him out. That, and having your own private screen opens up a whole new world for multiplayer gaming.

  11. Even without Wii Fit, Will still dominates the non-gamer market as far as actual game-playing goes. The ease of the controller, not to mention the physical movement required means people aren't intimidated by a controller with too many buttons and are more able to just play the game. Entire Senior centers hold Wii tournaments with things like Bowling and Tennis, not to mention actual *Game* games. I'm talking about those people who wouldn't touch a PS3 because they see it as an actual console, whereas things like the Wii (and now the Kinect) bring in people who have no experience with consoles. I can post various articles for your review, if you like.

    • Right, my problem, I guess, is that I failed to distinguish between "gamers" and "people who play games". Which I guess is pretty important. Someone who plays Wii Bowling may not be anything like someone who plays Call of Duty or LA Noire.

      • Right. And the old man who found the tiny Wiimote charming will balk at the giant controller with the touch-screen, and is more likely to go back to his LCD-screened sudoku puzzle. (Granted, assuming the old man is a total "old man" stereotype)

  12. Again, I gotta weigh in strictly to give props to good writing. "WiiMote's ovarwiis" rofl.

    There aren't going to be any "pet" games that can go Wii on the rug, right?

  13. I'm not sure I've seen enough of Wii U but do you think the Kinect has the potential to replace things like the Wii for such games? (and for the games like Wii sports)

  14. My favorite part of the comic was the ad for dating Russian women…
    Oh Joel, my dear, sweet Joel. What has this economy done to you?

  15. I cant believe no one has made the connection to the GameCube using GBA as a controller with its own screen precedent by Nintendo, admittedly that was sorta a gimmick for maybe a handful of games, but they've done it before and was rather well done, and this seems like its building on that. That said I am still a little dubious on it until i see some very convincing uses that aren't gimmicky or just unwieldy, but its interesting nonetheless.

  16. I'm not sure how I feel about this. (The Wii U, I mean. The comic I love, as usual.) I agree with one of the previous commenters that the personal handheld screen *could* be great for multiplayer gaming, perhaps with things like poker or Scrabble or anything where you have something the other players shouldn't be able to see (having trouble coming up with better examples than board games…haven't had my tea yet).

    I grew up on the SNES and then the PS2 (Prince of Persia FTW). My dad bought a Wii as soon as it came out, then later we got the Wii Fit. We all stopped using it because the Wii Fit repeatedly insults us–for example, "Go easy on those afternoon snacks!" or asking whether we think another member of the household has gained weight. Then I got Epic Mickey because it sounded *awesome*, but turned out to be not nearly as awesome as I was lead to believe–the controls were frustrating, the world wasn't as versatile as I'd hoped, etc. So, all in all, I have to agree that until the Wii line gets some better, more *gamer*-friendly games (and I do mean gamers, as we have made that distinction), I'll stick with my well-loved PS2.

  17. A folded up piece of cardboard from a cereal box between the cartridge and the tray would saved you a lot of that effort.

  18. Its simple the Wii people are making controller directly for the modding community, heck I own three sensor bars and 4 wii-motes and no wii

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